Most buildings or homes are equipped with at least one type of cooling device. Homes in the Southwest of the United States usually have either at least one evaporative cooler or air conditioner. And traditionally, the user is able to adjust the power or coolant output of the cooling device in order to achieve the desired room temperature inside the building or home.
Air conditioners were designed for use in areas of high humidity, however, they do not work cost effectively in areas of low humidity such as in the Southwest of the United States. Also, air conditioners placed on a roof of a building or dwelling lose about 25% of their efficiency because of exposure to the sun besides being very difficult to maintain because of the roof mounting. As a result, air cooling devices are preferably not mounted on roofs.
Applicant has discovered that evaporative coolers properly used and properly arranged will provide better cooling for buildings or homes in areas where there is low humidity despite high temperatures (over 100 degrees Fahrenheit). Previously, air conditioners rather than evaporative coolers were the cooling devices that people resorted to for cooling the interior of homes or buildings when the outside temperature exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit, even in areas of low humidity such as in the Southwestern part of the United States.
An evaporative cooler basically comprises a large fan and water-moistened pads. The outside air is cooled as it passes through the moist pads and is then blown into the building or home providing moist cooled air.
In very hot weather (over 100 degrees Fahrenheit), a user is often tempted to turn the evaporative cooling device onto its highest blower setting. Turning an evaporative cooler onto its highest blower setting, however, will not cause the interior room to cool any faster. Instead, by placing the evaporative cooler onto its highest blower setting, the outside air has less time to be cooled before it is blown into the building or home. The result is that the evaporative cooler blows warmer air at a faster rate into the building or home. Furthermore, prior to this invention, evaporative coolers were believed to be ineffective to cool interior portions of a building or home in very hot weather even in areas of low humidity.
Therefore a need existed for a method of better operating and placing evaporative coolers in such a way as to create an optimal cooling effect for interior portions of a building or home that would be especially effective in areas of low humidity even if the temperature exceeds 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
In order for the vent of the cooling device to reach, for example, the inside of a home, Applicant discovered that it is necessary for the vent to penetrate the wall on which the cooling device is mounted for more efficient and enhanced cooling. Specifically, Applicant discovered that providing an array of evaporative coolers, operated in the manner disclosed herein, that are wall mounted with wall penetrating vents provides cooled air that can more efficiently cool the interior of a building or home.
Building codes often prohibit the use of window mounted cooling devices, therefore it is preferable in the Southwest to penetrate and reinforce or provide a brace for the wall rather than mount a cooling unit on a roof in the extreme temperature and sunlight prevalent in the Southwest which destroys the efficiency of a roof mounted cooling device.
The frame of a building or home is commonly made up of 2×4 wooden studs spaced approximately sixteen inches apart. In order for the vent to penetrate the wall, at least one or often two of these 2×4s need to be cut. Cutting through these 2×4s is necessary to create the vent, but is structurally undesired because it compromises the structural integrity of the wall of the building or home.
Therefore a need also existed for an apparatus for supporting and arranging cooling devices along at least one outer wall of a building or home that bridges the gap in the cut 2×4s while sustaining the weight of the evaporative cooler or the air conditioner placed upon it thereby providing, in effect, a wall brace.